Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

Charles Deane, letter, October 17, 1879, to Samuel Eliot
CWF Rockefeller Library Special Collections. SCMS1937.5

The earliest authority
for the statement as to the
introduction of slaves into
Virginia I believe to be Smith's
"General Historie", folio, p. 126-
in a letter from John Rolfe,
The incident is noted under
the date of 1619. "About the
last of August came in a
dutch man of warre that sold
us twenty Negars," "&c

A later Historian of Virginia,
Beverley, 1705, evidently misreading
the date in Smith, said, p. 307 -
"In August following [May, 1620]
a Dutch Man of War landed
Twenty Negroes for sale; which
were the First of that kind that
were carried into the Country."
The same appears in Beverley's
second edition, 1722, p. 35.

Beverley's book being more
accessible than Smith's became
the authority for later writers _
Bancroft, from his first Edition,
p. 189, to the tenth, p. 176, & perhaps
later, gives the date 1619 ²⁰ , citing Beverley.

In an edition pub. in 1861, p. 177,
he makes the correction, citing Smith.

For an account of the cir-
cumstances under which these
negroes were brought to Virginia
see a long & valuable note in
"Aspinwall Report," 4 Mass. Hist. Coll.
IX. p. 4 [et ray.] -